Nursery News 9th December

NURSERY NEWS 

9th December 2024 – Edition 355 

Find out About: 

A. Christmas at Willow     

B. Ensure all payments are up to date by Thursday 12th December.

C. School Office closed on Friday 20th December.

D. The Elf on the Shelf……

E. What are the children learning about this week?  

F. Christmas Parties :A reminder 

A. Christmas at Willow.

We put up our Christmas Trees last week. We have a variety of trees across the school. We have a small pink one with a fluffy pink star on the top.  We have some great big tall ones with lots of ornaments on for looking at.  

We also have two trees which the children can add decorations to themselves in the home corners.- We see ‘Decorations on, decorations off,’ all day long. 

We start ‘Christmas activities’ today. We choose that we can sustain Christmas activities for two weeks, this makes the school feel busy, exciting and different. 

So, the school looks Christmassy, and sounds Christmassy with Christmas songs playing in the background. We learn Christmas songs. We have lots of arts and crafts on offer using glitter and glue.  

Traditionally, we always offer the opportunity to children to make Christmas cards and Calendars to bring home. (This did start a discussion amongst staff about:      ‘Do children see as many Christmas cards in their homes now? Due to the cost of postage?’ Do adults actually write many cards now due to the technology available to us in our everyday lives? Do you still use a paper calendar in you home? Or do you use your diary in your phone?) So we have thought about it, but still decided to offer these activities.  

We share lots of books and stories with a Christmas theme, because our current Willow children love stories! 

We set up a Stable Role play area, with all the costumes and props required to tell the Nativity Story. We retell the story with the children over and over and over again, so everyone can have a chance to be Mary, a camel, and an angel all in one day! Everyone can get involved. After many days of practicing the staff support the children to ‘perform’ the story to an audience of their friends.  

We do not have a Christmas show. We do not have the space here, and the children are not old enough to understand what a performance is. Many years ago we’d stage a Nativity but over half the children would cry and nobody but the staff would sing. It was not a happy event, so we stopped trying to do it.  

So, as for most things at Willow, we try to work out what is appropriate to explore within the themes and traditions of Christmas, with 2, 3 and 4 year olds. So we end up with glitter and tinsel everywhere! And then of course we have our parties…..  

B.Ensure all payments are up to date by Thursday 12th December. 

Please ensure that all payments are made by 9:30am on Thursday 12th December for the remainder of this term and for the first week back. 

C. School Office closed on Friday 20th

The 20th December is the school party day. The school is only open for the School parties. The office staff join in with the parties too. Staff will not be doing any administration tasks that day. 

D. The Elf on the Shelf……

Miss England has invited a cheeky Christmas Elf to visit Big Nursery. The children have been really taken with him. When the children arrive each day, they find the Elf in a different place. 

The Elf first arrived in his reindeer pulled sleigh. 

On Day 2 he set about decorating the school with Paper Chains 

On Day 3 he put up a very cheeky picture turning all the teachers into Father Christmas. 

Day 4 saw the Elf dress for heavy rain, a good job as a big cloud appeared with huge raindrops! 

Day 5, the cheeky Elf dressed up as Mario from a computer game! 

Talk to your children about the Elf, they will be excited to tell you about what he has been doing. I will add further photo’s in next week’s newsletter 

E. What are the children learning about this week?

The theme this week is Christmas and winter. 

There will be lots of exciting Christmas activities this week throughout the nursery and staff will be talking to the children about the upcoming Christmas party. In preparation for our Christmas party, we will be singing lots of Christmas songs and really getting into the festive spirit. When your children come home, you can ask them what songs they have learnt and have a go at singing them together. 

In Big Nursery, we retell ‘The Story of Christmas’ with the children. (We are always careful with religious stories to say that ‘This is a story that a lot of people believe to be true’).  Our pupil community represents a wide spectrum of religious beliefs and cultures. We aim to create an inclusive environment which is accepting, considerate and mindful of everyone’s family life. 

So, for the Christmas Story staff will set up a stable role play area. The children have heard the story of ‘The Nativity’ last week, and can revisit this as they act out the story. Children can choose to take it in turns to retell the story of Jesus being born and people coming from afar to visit the new baby. This is always a very popular activity for the children to join in, which often culminates in them acting out the story in front of an audience of their friends. 

 Mrs Griffith’s (volunteer helper) will be coming in on Tuesday to offer a cooking activity: making Mince Pies. As the children cook, they can talk to the adults about whether they like to leave any treats out for Santa on Christmas eve.